Featured Research

from universities, journals, and other organizations

Scientists On Scent Of Better Coyote Management

Date:

May 3, 2000

Source:

American Chemical Society

Summary:

Based on observations that coyotes without puppies are less likely to attack livestock, scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are working to produce new fragrances to bait and trick the elusive animals into consuming birth control drugs.

Related Articles

To many farmers, the only good coyote is a dead coyote. Thousands of the dog-like animals are shot and killed each year to prevent attacks on livestock, wildlife and people. Now, as the coyote population expands to include urban areas, a humane alternative may be on the horizon.

Based on observations that coyotes without puppies are less likely to attack livestock, scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are working to produce new fragrances to bait and trick the elusive animals into consuming birth control drugs. Fewer pups means fewer attacks, which should result in fewer coyote shootings, the scientists say. The findings are reported in the May issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

At present, there is no reliable coyote contraceptive. However, USDA researchers are testing potential candidate drugs.

Fragrances, or chemical attractants, are nothing new to coyote management. They have been used for years to lure coyotes into traps to reduce attacks on livestock. To take advantage of the coyote's keen sense of smell, these fragrances have often been creative mixtures of blood, urine and other fluids from a variety of animal sources. Because of this variability, the effectiveness of these fragrances has been unpredictable, researchers say.

"Coyote management requires specialized attractants for the targeted delivery of drugs and vaccines and for the effective operation of traps," says Bruce A. Kimball, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study and a chemist with the USDA's National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colo. "Attractants must provoke behavior that will make them respond appropriately."

In an effort to develop simpler and more reliable fragrances to optimize effectiveness, Kimball selected 33 complex coyote attractants for chemical analysis. Based on this analysis, seven promising but less complex synthetic fragrances were produced, he says. Each of the new fragrances was tested among 28 coyotes -- half male, half female -- whose behaviors were monitored and recorded.

Among the animals studied, female coyotes were the first to respond to the chemicals, the researchers say. This suggests a possible target for delivering birth control drugs to female coyotes to prevent births, says study co-author J. Russell Mason, Ph.D., a researcher with the USDA's National Wildlife Research Center in Logan, Utah.

The purpose of reducing births is not to decrease the coyote population, but to change the animal's feeding and predatory behavior, Mason says. The feeding habits of coyotes are based largely on whether they have offspring, he explains. Coyotes with puppies have a constant need for food in order to provide energy for their pups. As a result, they seek out larger prey, especially lamb and sheep. Coyotes without puppies have a smaller need for food and tend to choose smaller prey, like rodents and rabbits.

One of the new fragrances tested elicited strong chewing behavior, a response that would be useful for getting the coyotes to absorb vaccines, says Mason. Vaccines must be delivered to the lining of the mouth to be effective, while a vaccine that is gulped would bypass the mouth and not work properly, he explains. Researchers hope that this method can be used to deliver rabies vaccines to coyotes, which are a primary carrier of the disease. They can transmit it to dogs, which can pass it to humans.

Although the new coyote management approach using the new fragrances may take several years to develop and apply, researchers believe that it will ultimately cut down on lethal methods currently in use, such as shooting.

Farmers are particularly concerned about coyote attacks because the sheep population in this country has declined more than 25 percent within the past decade, with coyote attacks cited as a major cause of this decline, according to one USDA study. The agency estimates that coyote attacks on livestock have cost farmers millions of dollars in lost earnings.

While no one knows the exact size of the coyote population in this country, their range is expanding. They are more numerous in Western states, but their range now includes nearly every state and is rapidly extending eastward to include many urban areas. In addition to posing a threat to livestock, coyotes are also a danger to deer, antelope and some endangered species. Coyotes rarely attack humans, although the number of reported incidents has increased, the researchers say.

###

The online version of the research paper cited above was initially published April 21 on the journal's Web site.

A nonprofit organization with a membership of 161,000 chemists and chemical engineers, the American Chemical Society publishes scientific journals and databases, convenes major research conferences, and provides educational, science policy and career programs in chemistry. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. http://www.acs.org.

Mar. 3, 2015 — Rather than just waiting patiently for any pollinator that comes their way to start the next generation of seeds, some plants appear to recognize the best suitors and 'turn on' to increase the chance ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Two of the four known groups of human AIDS viruses (HIV-1 groups O and P) have originated in western lowland gorillas, according to new research. The scientists conducted a comprehensive survey of ... full story

Mar. 3, 2015 — Methane emissions are strongly reduced in lakes with anoxic bottom waters. But – contrary to what has previously been assumed – methane removal is not always due to archaea or anaerobic bacteria. ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — For the first time, researchers have produced a 3-D image revealing part of the inner structure of an intact, infectious virus, using a unique X-ray laser. The virus, called Mimivirus, is in a ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — In the first study of its kind since the 1920s, rats in New York City were found to carry a flea species capable of transmitting plague pathogens. Among them: 500-plus Oriental rat fleas, notorious ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — What do a human colon, septic tank, copper nanoparticles and zebrafish have in common? They were the key components used by researchers to study the impact copper nanoparticles, which are found in ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — You might resemble or act more like your mother, but a novel research study reveals that mammals are genetically more like their dads. Specifically, the research shows that although we inherit equal ... full story

Mar. 2, 2015 — Researchers have examined the association of nut and peanut consumption with mortality among low-income and racially diverse populations and found that intake of peanuts was associated with fewer ... full story

Featured Videos

Rare Goblin Shark Found in Australia

AFP (Mar. 3, 2015) — A goblin shark, a rare sea creature described as an &apos;alien of the deep&apos; is found off Australia and delivered to the Australian Museum in Sydney. Duration: 01:25
Video provided by AFP

Zookeepers Copy Animal Poses In Hilarious Viral Photos

Buzz60 (Mar. 2, 2015) — Zookeepers at the Symbio Wildlife Park in Helensburgh, Australia decided to take some of their favorite animal photos and recreate them by posing just like the animals. Jen Markham (@jenmarkham) has the story.
Video provided by Buzz60

Related Stories

June 16, 2014 — Coyote and red fox fur trapping records across North America have been used by scientists to document how the presence of wolves influences the balance of smaller predators further down the food ... full story

May 9, 2014 — Coyotes are a major predator of white-tailed deer across the East, especially fawns born each spring, but wildlife managers nonetheless are able to stabilize and even grow deer herds, according to ... full story

Oct. 24, 2013 — It has long been believed that coyotes were incapable of taking down an adult moose, but researchers have recently discovered that eastern coyotes and coyote x wolf hybrids (canids) have preyed on ... full story

Oct. 25, 2011 — Changes in North American ecosystems over the past 150 years have caused coyotes to move from their native habitats in the plains and southwestern deserts of North America to habitats throughout the ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.